Have your say! Drop us your questions now – The North American Job Board Summit Panel Debates

Job Board Summit Chicago

One of the highlights of our summits has been our panel debates, our delegates have enjoyed listening to our panels of experts, then contributing and shaping the debate. This year’s North American Summit is no different and we have three great panels discussing the “big subjects” that affect our industry today.

Our first panel is our client user session, it’s one that over the years has generated lively debate and often disagreement between what our panels say they want versus what our audience experience day in and out running their operations. This year’s panel includes Kyle Power, Director of Interactive Marketing at the huge healthcare staffing firm CMG, Mike Temkin, Vice President of Strategic Planning and Development at Shaker Recruitment Advertising & Communications and Steve Levy, Recruiter, Industry Commentator and recently handling recruiting for Indeed, our moderator for this session is Richard Padgett, CEO Jobserve/ComputerJobs.

In speaking with our panellists, the key issues they see are; the need for better metrics, the move from transactional buying to strategic relationships and better quality/relevancy of candidates – we all know this one “I get too much of the wrong response and not enough of the right response”.

BUT also they see that they and their clients have more choices on how to “find candidates” today, do I attract? I.e. via a Job Boards, or their career site, do they identify and source, additionally they see more tools than ever before to utilise but are not seeing huge increases in budgets – therefore choices are being made and could Job Boards suffer accordingly?

Finally, they and we are seeing Job Boards launching new buying/pricing models as well as new services i.e. Indeed’s move into staffing, or the move to Pay Per Application, Pay Per Placement, Programmatic Buying Offerings etc. Do these confuse clients or add value as we hope?

BUT now it’s time to have your say – send us the questions you’d like to ask them via marketing@jobg8.com.

As you can imagine with such a diverse panel we can expect a range of opinions on what the Job Board of the Future will look like, but expect a focus on better matching, introducing screening and testing in the form of games (gamification) , new functions such as the ability for recruiters to see the profiles of candidates who looked their job posting but didn’t apply and better “Branding” opportunities.

Plus more of a careers content thus moving us from being a Job Board to a Careers Portal, which back in the early days of our industry (1996) Job Boards where often called Career Portals, so company ratings services, career advice etc.

BUT our clients just want to find jobs… so does the “other stuff matter”?

Will candidates pay for any of our services?

Does matching really work and what is the evidence?

Our final panel session and one which wraps the summit is “What Business are we In – Media/Publishing, Recruiting Technology, Recruiting or ALL”?

Our panel are global, bring a wealth of experiences and opinions to this session, Lee Biggins in the founder of CV Library and is one of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs, Dave Baran is VP of Business Development at Applify which is part of the Canadian Job Board Group Workopolis, Kathleen Smith is CMO at niche the niche Job Board Clearedjobs.net and Randy Reece VP Strategy at Avondale Partners.

In speaking with Dave Baran, he sees Job Boards as elements of all of the above, but with the emphasis on the fact that we do publish jobs via both our own platforms but also increasingly via other platforms where our clients potential candidates hangout and then additionally provide a range of “lite” recruiting services.

Research, Keith Robinson undertook in Europe indicates that many Job Boards now offer a full suite of recruiting services i.e. post & push (into other channels) jobs, sourcing services either via integrations with tech partners i.e. SwoopTalent or sourcing partners, screening services and in a number of cases actually run a recruiting business.

This is particularly true in many of the smaller markets in the CEE regions and with niche Job Boards, but historically in the bigger markets i.e. UK, DACH and France, because of the size of the markets and much like the U.S. the focus has been on the core posting business and grabbing marketshare.

BUT with Indeed offering a new “Staffing Service” and other developing new pricing models more akin to the staffing sector is this the route we will go.